KDKA (Pittsburgh, Pa.)  [Printer-friendly version]
May 15, 2006

BIOTECH FIRM RAISES FUROR WITH RICE PLAN

[Rachel's introduction: Environmental groups, corporate food
interests and thousands of farmers across the country have succeeded
in chasing Ventria Bioscience's rice farms out of two states. And
critics continue to complain that Ventria is recklessly plowing ahead
with a mostly untested technology that threatens the safety of
conventional crops grown for food.]

By Paul Elias, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- A tiny biosciences company is developing a promising
drug to fight diarrhea, a scourge among babies in the developing
world, but it has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies
because it grows the experimental drug in rice genetically engineered
with a human gene.

Environmental groups, corporate food interests and thousands of
farmers across the country have succeeded in chasing Ventria
Bioscience's rice farms out of two states. And critics continue to
complain that Ventria is recklessly plowing ahead with a mostly
untested technology that threatens the safety of conventional crops
grown for food.

"We just want them to go away," said Bob Papanos of the U.S. Rice
Producers Association. "This little company could cause major
problems."

Ventria, with 16 employees, practices "biopharming," the most
contentious segment of agricultural biotechnology because its
adherents essentially operate open-air drug factories by splicing
human genes into crops to produce proteins that can be turned into
medicines.

Ventria's rice produces two human proteins found in mother's milk,
saliva and tears, which help people hydrate and lessen the severity
and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in
developing countries.

But farmers, environmentalists and others fear that such medicinal
crops will mix with conventional crops, making them unsafe to eat.

The company says the chance of its genetically engineered rice ending
up in the food supply is remote because the company grinds the rice
and extracts the protein before shipping. What's more, rice is "self-
pollinating," and it's virtually impossible for genetically engineered
rice to accidentally cross breed with conventional crops.

"We use a contained system," Ventria Chief Executive Scott Deeter
said.

Regardless, U.S. rice farmers in particular fear that important
overseas customers in lucrative, biotechnology-averse countries like
Japan will shun U.S. crops if biopharming is allowed to proliferate.
Exports account for 50 percent of the rice industry's $1.18 billion in
annual sales.

Japanese consumers, like those in Western Europe, are still alarmed by
past mad cow disease outbreaks mishandled by their governments, making
them deeply skeptical of any changes to their food supply, including
genetically engineered crops.

Rice interests in California drove Ventria's experimental work out of
the state in 2004, after Japanese customers said they wouldn't buy the
rice if Ventria were allowed to set up shop.

Anheuser-Busch Inc. and Riceland Foods Inc., the world's largest rice
miller, were among the corporate interests that pressured the company
to abandon plans to set up a commercial-scale farm in Missouri's rice
belt last year.

But Ventria was undeterred. The company, which has its headquarters in
Sacramento, finally landed near Greenville, N.C. In March it received
U.S. Department of Agriculture clearance to expand its operation there
from 70 acres to 335 acres. Ventria is hoping to get regulatory
clearance this year to market its diarrhea-fighting protein powder.

There has been little resistance from corporate and farming interest
in eastern North Carolina. But the company's work has raised the
hackles of environmentalists there.

"The issue is the growing of pharmaceutical products in food crops
grown outdoors," said Hope Shand of the environmental nonprofit ETC
Group in Carrboro, N.C. "The chance this will contaminate
traditionally grown crops is great. This is a very risky business."

Deeter points out that there aren't any commercial rice growers in
North Carolina, although the USDA did allow Ventria to grow its
controversial crop about a half-mile from a government "rice station,"
where new strains are tested. The USDA has since moved that station to
Beltsville, Md., though an agency spokeswoman said the relocation had
nothing to do with Ventria.

The company, meanwhile, has applied to the Food and Drug
Administration to approve the protein powder as a "medical food"
rather than a drug. That means Ventria wouldn't have to conduct long
and costly human tests. Instead, it submitted data from scientific
experts attesting to the company's powder is "generally regarded as
safe."

Earlier this month, a Peruvian scientist sponsored by Ventria
presented data at the Pediatric Academics Societies meeting in San
Francisco. It showed children hospitalized in Peru with serious
diarrhea attacks recovered quicker -- 3.67 days versus 5.21 days -- if
the dehydration solution they were fed contained the powder.

Ventria's chief executive said he hopes to have an approval this year
and envisions a $100 million annual market in the United States.
Deeter forecasts a $500 million market overseas, especially in
developing countries where diarrhea is a top killer of children under
the age of 5. The World Health Organization reports that nearly 2
million children succumb to diarrhea each year.

But overcoming consumer skepticism and regulatory concerns about
feeding babies with products derived from genetic engineering is a
tall order. This is especially true in the face of continued
opposition to biopharming from the Grocery Manufacturers Association
of America, which represents food, beverage and consumer products
companies with combined U.S. sales of $460 billion.

Ventria hopes to add its protein powder to existing infant products.
There is no requirement to label any food products in the United
States as containing genetically engineered ingredients.

The company also has ambitious plans to add its product to infant
formula, a $10 billion-a-year market, even though the major food
manufacturers have so far shown little interest in using genetically
engineered ingredients. But Deeter says Ventria can win over the
manufacturers and consumers by showing the company's products are
beneficial.

"For children who are weaning, for instance, these two proteins have
enormous potential to help their development,"

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press